Australian Jarryd Hayne (right) is attracting much attention as he plays for the San Francisco 49ers against Dallas Cowboys in pre-season NFL game.
EPA/John G Mabanglo
Jarryd Hayne is wowing crowds and commentators with his play on the American football field in the US. His years in Australian rugby league may have a lot to do with his star performance.
Last week’s prestigious National Press Club address was delivered by the Australian Football League’s CEO, Gillon McLachlan, on the topic of “Australia’s game in a global environment”. This was an opportunity…
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has ensured it will continue to ride on the back of the AFL until 2022.
Joe Castro/AAP
The imbroglio surrounding AFL legend and 2014 Australian of the Year Adam Goodes has been unedifying, to say the least. Those who boo Goodes when he has the ball invariably claim it has nothing to do with…
Australia’s Bumala-y Yuurrama-y seems to be accepted only when confined to matches between Indigenous players, yet all New Zealanders feel able to embrace the Haka.
AAP/David Crosling
While AFL player Adam Goodes polarised Australians by performing an Indigenous war dance, New Zealanders unite in celebration of the Haka. The difference in approach to Indigenous culture is telling.
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane said the booing of Goodes, which was racist, had gone too far and was damaging not just the game but also our society.
Dave Hunt/AAP
Race Discrimination Commissioner Tim Soutphommasane has said if the vilification of Adam Goodes does not stop, players may have to take matters into their own hands and walk off the field in protest.
AFL supporters have a history of emphasising notions of ‘difference’ by abusing Indigenous players.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Sydney Swans player Adam Goodes was yet again booed by Australian football fans at the weekend. Sadly, AFL supporters have a history of emphasising notions of “difference” by abusing Indigenous players.
Between then, Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch have significant media holdings.
Andrew Gombert/EPA/AAP
In March 2015, Karmichael Hunt pleaded guilty to four counts of cocaine possession. This coincided with the end of his career at the Gold Coast Suns AFL club. At the close of the court case, a colleague…
Watching the footy could be in for a change with point-of-view crowd shots and 360 degree vision.
Flickr/Mathew F
After saying he was ‘deeply suspicious’, a judge cleared a man of child pornography offences. We need to understand the standard of proof to make sense of verdicts, including AFL rulings on doping.
The AFL does best in attracting young women to games and then maintaining their loyalty in later years.
AAP/David Mariuz
The AFL draws the biggest crowds in the country and its growth has been driven by female fans being drawn to the game and sticking with it as they get older.
Sports scientist Stephen Dank outside his Ascot Vale home in Melbourne in, 2013.
AAP Image/Julian Smith
There may be career-ending sanctions for sportspeople who have inadvertently tested positive to a performance-enhancing drug after having consumed an illicit drug.
The process by which women become fans is more complicated and interesting than people previously imagined.
AAP Image/Joe Castro
Men might believe that women don’t have what it takes to be serious sports fans but new research into female AFL fans proves them wrong. Some women are footy converts, some have it in the blood – and some were born to it.
An Australian study found certain elite athletes were more at risk of taking drugs than others.
Lee Morley/Flickr
Our study found that 8% of the 1,684 elite Australian athletes we surveyed said they had used at least one of six illicit drugs – including ecstasy, cocaine and cocaine – over the previous year.
Sports rights are seen as critical to the survival of free-to-air broadcasters.
Flickr/Beau Lebens
Male sports stars perpetrating violence against women is a phenomenon that, sadly, seems to cross both international and sporting borders. In the most recent high-profile case, NFL player Ray Rice was…
Hawthorn fans watched the players train this week - everyone is a winner when it comes to the AFL grand final.
AAP/Julian Smith
When the Sydney Swans take on Hawthorn at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Saturday, it won’t just be AFL fans cheering. As Australia’s dominant sport competition, the AFL generates more revenue than any…
Research Fellow, Institute for Health & Sport, member of the Community, Identity and Displacement Research Network, and Co-convenor of the Olympic Research Network, Victoria University